


Anniversary

by seraphina_snape



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-16
Updated: 2010-12-16
Packaged: 2017-10-13 17:10:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphina_snape/pseuds/seraphina_snape
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick and Cody help each other through a difficult anniversary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published in January 2009.
> 
> Set pre-series. Thanks to tinx_r for the beta.

Nick woke up disoriented. It took a moment for his dream to fade and reality to re-assert itself and he took stock of his situation quietly, unmoving.

He was in his narrow bed in his cabin on Cody's boat, not on his cot in the makeshift barracks in the jungle. He was smelling coffee and eggs and sea water, not cordite and earth and blood. He could see the early morning sunlight glinting through the bull's eye above his head, not the flash of grenades and the fires of war.

Taking a deep breath, Nick slowly sat up and ran a hand over his face. He could hear the chatter and the cries of the seagulls circling the harbour.

It was going to be a long day.

~~~

Nick spent the day working on the Mimi. He removed and cleaned a handful of parts before he put them back in. He replaced a few rusty parts and cleaned out the junk in the hold. The only boxes that went untouched were the ones holding his assortment of weapons and the ammo.

Cody dropped off a couple of sandwiches and a thermos of coffee around noon. From the grease smudges on Cody's arms and the dirty rag stuffed into the back pocket of his jeans, Nick knew that Cody was working on one of the boats.

Cody didn't stay long, but Nick wasn't expecting him to. They had a routine for this day. Cody was usually up before Nick and he'd prepare breakfast, which they would eat in silence. After that, Nick would grab his keys and head out to the helipad while Cody stayed home and puttered around with the _Ebb Tide_ 's engine or in the _Riptide_ 's machine room. Around noon, he'd bring Nick lunch and then they'd both go back to work. Separately. On any other day, they might have been working on either project together, but not on this day.

Nick almost smiled at the thought of working with Cody. They were good together. Sometimes they worked in companionable silence and sometimes they kept up a running commentary of any topic that came to mind. Girls, cars, boats, guns, girls, food, baseball, girls, football, and girls.

There was nothing Nick couldn't talk about with Cody, but there were some things that came close.

And then there were things that didn't need any words at all.

Cody had been there. He had seen the same things Nick had seen. He had heard the explosions and the screams and the whine of the engines. He had felt the heat of the jungle and the fires. There was no need to talk about something that they would both rather forget ever happened.

Nick didn't return to the _Riptide_ until the sky turned a fiery orange red, several hours past dinnertime. On the way back, Nick tried to convince himself that the queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach was hunger. Nothing more, nothing less.

He avoided looking at the torches that lined pier 56. All Nick could see were the flickering shadows they cast.

~~~

Cody was sitting in the twilight in the salon, with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses on the table in front of him. He looked up briefly when Nick sat down next to him.

Nick leaned back and closed his eyes. He reached out with his senses, not wanting to slip away and get trapped in his memories. If he concentrated, Nick could hear faint noises from the other occupants of the harbor. Rosita, closing down the fish market for the day, chatting with a late customer. The door to _Straightaways_ opening and closing, letting out bursts of sound of a multitude of conversations. The creaking of the ropes, the squeaking of the rubber fenders rubbing against the _Riptide_ 's hull. Sounds of home.

The clink of the bottle brought Nick back to the salon. Cody poured them both a shot of whiskey and set the open bottle back on the table. He slid one of the glasses over to Nick.

Nick picked up his glass and raised it, waiting for Cody to do the same. Cody raised his glass and caught Nick's eye.

"To Sergeant Alex Seabridge," Cody said, knocking back the first shot.

"To Sergeant Alex Seabridge," Nick echoed, drinking his own.

Cody refilled the glasses.

"To Sergeant Benjamin Schwartz."

"To Sergeant Benjamin Schwartz."

Nick could feel Cody's presence beside, solid and warm. It was comforting in more ways than one. It reminded Nick that he wasn't alone, and not just physically. Cody had been through the same hellish day as the rest of the guys, Nick included. It reminded Nick that he could sit here and get drunk while reciting the names of their fallen comrades, but he didn't have to let the memories and the anger control him. There had been losses, a lot of them, but there'd also been survivors, he and Cody among them. Cody's name wouldn't come up in the list of the fallen because he had survived. _They_ had survived.

That was something to hold on to.

"To Lieutenant Andrew Cooper," Cody said quietly.

Nick remembered Coop and his easy laugh. He also remembered the noise of the explosion as the jeep parked right next to a group of young soldiers, Coop among them, went up in a ball of fire. He remembered the confusion, the panic of that first second after the boom. He remembered the hand grenades that came flying at them. Somebody screamed that the troop was under attack from the East, someone else said they were coming from the North. Nick remembered crouching down behind what was left of a low wall as grenades were launched at them from the small forest ahead.

Civilians didn't understand the concept of bombs. People saw them on TV, but they didn't understand what they were seeing. Documentaries, war movies, TV shows. They all showed the explosions, the flying debris, the carnage of the aftermath, but none of them could show what it was really like to be in the middle of all that. The deafening noise of grenades, the inevitable shockwave of larger explosions, the staccato of the machine guns. The sheer noise of war.

Most civilians didn't know what it was like to have adrenaline thrumming through your body in a life-and-death situation. Or how hard the fall could be when it wore off.

"Nick."

Nick looked at Cody. Cody had wrapped his hand around Nick's wrist and both their hands were wet with whiskey. "To Lieutenant Andrew Cooper," Nick said, drinking the rest of liquid in his glass down once Cody released his wrist.

The sun had vanished beyond the horizon and the salon was cast in shadows. It was only because they were familiar that Nick could make out the shapes of furniture in the semi darkness.

Instead of waiting for Cody to refill their glasses, Nick reached for the bottle and filled them up himself. "Bottle's almost empty," he remarked, wondering at the fact that he didn't feel drunk.

"I've got another in my room," Cody said, reaching for his glass. "To Corporal Lawrence Liebermann."

Nick raised his glass.

~~~

Nick was far from being ready to pass out drunk, but he was definitely more than just a little fuzzy around the edges. Clutching the second bottle of Jacks, the few steps up to the salon seemed like an insurmountable hurdle. It was only four steps, but Nick wasn't sure whether the boat was rocking or if his equilibrium was simply shot to hell.

"Better not put it to the test," he said, handing the bottle to Cody. "Let's stay down here."

Cody swayed against Nick, bumping Nick's arm with his shoulder. Nick stumbled against the wall and put out a steadying hand to keep his friend from falling. They went back into Cody's cabin on unsteady feet.

When Cody all but shoved him down onto the nearest bed, Nick thought, for a second or two, that Cody had lost his balance and dragged Nick down with him. But then Cody kissed him, one hand on Nick's chest, the other on his neck. Nick could taste the whiskey on Cody's tongue, feel the scrape of Cody's teeth against his lips.

Nick lost himself in the taste and feel of it until Cody shifted closer and pressed their erection together. Nick gasped at the sharp pulse of arousal mixed with apprehension and more than a little confusion.

Nick had, on occasion, taken a male partner, but Cody had made it perfectly clear that he had never even considered it an option. Even back during the war, when a lot of the guys had used a little physical intimacy to release tension and frustration, Cody hadn't joined in.

Nick tilted his head to the side and brought his hands up to keep Cody at a distance. He couldn't sit up with Cody's weight pressing down on him, but he could stop Cody if he had to. "Cody, this isn't--You're drunk. You don't want this."

Cody grabbed Nick's wrists, but didn't try to get Nick to relinquish his hold. "Don't tell me what I want," Cody said angrily.

Nick thought the effect would have been greater if the words hadn't been slightly slurred.

Cody leaned forward and released his grip on Nick's wrists to run his hands down Nick's arms.

"Don't, Cody."

"Why not?" Cody asked, slowly grinding his hips against Nick's. "You've done this before, with a guy. Can't be that different, and it must feel all right or people wouldn't be doing it." He snaked a hand down to Nick's fly and undid the button, deliberately brushing his fingers against the jeans-covered bulge. "From what I'm seeing it must feel really good."

Nick wanted Cody. He had admitted his attraction to Cody a long time ago – if only to himself. Nick had made the decision not to upset his friendship with Cody by pursuing him since Cody's disinterest in men in general – and in Nick in particular – had been more than obvious.

"You're drunk," Nick repeated, hoping to stall for time until he had a better argument than 'you'll regret this in the morning – if you can remember it – and I'd hate to break up a fifteen-year-old friendship because of bad drunken sex'.

"So are you," Cody countered. "But obviously not too drunk to fuck."

He leaned in for another kiss, growling in frustration when Nick didn't reciprocate.

"You don't want this, Cody. What's gonna happen tomorrow? I can't let you throw away our friendship for this," Nick said, fighting off temptation. "We can't do this."

Cody's jaw tightened. He shoved his palm against Nick's chest with enough force to hurt. "I told you, Nick. Don't try to tell me what I want. I know what I'm doing and I'm sober enough to make the choice to go through with it. I don't know if it'll be what I want tomorrow or next week or next year, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm here right now." He narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, slowly. Nick could feel Cody's breath against his skin, Cody's lips skimming his ear as Cody whispered, "Make a choice, Nick. Yes or no?"

Nick froze. His body was definitely in favor of the plan. Cody's weight on top of him felt comfortable, natural, and Nick's hands were itching to touch Cody's back, cup his ass and pull him closer. But meanwhile his mind was telling him that sleeping with Cody could ruin the easy friendship between them.

It all came down to trust. Did he trust Cody to know what he was doing? Definitely. No matter how drunk, no guy jumped his male best friend without the thought ever having crossed his mind before. Did he trust Cody not to hold it against him in the morning if he said yes? He did.

"Nick?"

"Yes."

Nick let the tension in his body drain away and gave in to the impulse to pull Cody closer. This time, he kissed Cody, groaning when Cody slipped a hand between their bodies and unzipped both their pants.

Cody sat back on his haunches and hooked his fingers into the belt loops of Nick's jeans, pulling them down to mid-thigh. Leaning over Nick, Cody let his hands run along Nick's sides as he kissed Nick's stomach. Cody was straddling his legs so Nick couldn't let his them fall open, but he nudged Cody far enough out of the way to make a little more room for what Cody seemed to have in mind. Cody met his eyes and grinned, then leaned back down and followed the line of coarse hairs from Nick's navel down to his groin.

Nick could see Cody's resolve falter a little as he came head to head with Nick's cock. Cody hesitated, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. Nick bit his lips in anticipation at the sight of Cody intently studying Nick's erection. He hadn't expected Cody to go down on him. The only experience Cody had with blowjobs was from the receiving end, and most guys tended to start out small when they started playing on the other side of the fence. Somehow that made the sight of Cody even more erotic.

Cody, seemingly done with his visual study of Nick's cock, reached out and tentatively closed his fist around it, giving it a few exploratory tugs. Nick groaned, trying not to squirm at Cody's inadvertently teasing touches. He let his head fall back on the pillow, not sure he could take the intense look on Cody's face. When Cody's lips closed around the head of his cock a few moments later, Nick nearly bolted upright. Instead he jerked his hips just enough to cause Cody's teeth to scrape along his erection, making Nick hiss in pain and arousal.

"Stop wriggling," Cody said roughly, using his free hand to hold Nick still.

Cody's technique was lacking, but Nick didn't care. The sight of Cody, licking and lapping at his erection, was enough to bring him closer to the edge than anything else.

Cody was humping one of Nick's legs, kept his thrusts slow and steady. His mouth closed over the head of Nick's cock and he started sucking hard, his hand moving faster and faster along Nick's erection.

Nick came with a harsh cry, bucking his hips. Cody pulled away and wiped his mouth, watching as strands of come splattered on the sheets and Nick's stomach. Nick grabbed a handful of Cody's hair and tugged on it, trying to get Cody to move closer. Cody obliged easily, grinding his erection against Nick's thigh as Nick pulled him into a kiss.

Cody groaned and dug his fingers into the mattress, thrusting erratically against Nick's leg. He stiffened and gave a desperate moan as he came, letting his head fall against Nick's shoulder.

Nick covered Cody's hands with his own, unfurling Cody's fingers from where they were clenched in the sheets. He sighed and buried his nose in Cody's hair. He might not have this tomorrow or next week, but he had it for tonight, and that would have to be enough.

~~~

Nick couldn't say when he realized that Cody's loud panting breaths had turned into harsh panting sobs. Trying to hold back the tears stinging his own eyes, Nick wrapped his arms around Cody and held his friend, his comrade, his brother-in-arms as he cried.

End.


End file.
